A Section 508–conformant HTML version of this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409247. Commentary The NIEHS Superfund Research Program: 25 Years of Translational Research for Public Health Philip J. Landrigan,1 Robert O. Wright,1 Jose F. Cordero,2 David L. Eaton,3 Bernard D. Goldstein,4 Bernhard Hennig,5 Raina M. Maier,6 David M. Ozonoff,7 Martyn T. Smith,8 and Robert H. Tukey9 1Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA; 2University of Puerto Rico Graduate School of Public Health, San Juan, Puerto Rico; 3School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA; 4Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; 5University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Lexington, Kentucky, USA; 6Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA; 7Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 8School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA; 9University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA petroleum industries, the two major producers BACKGROUND: The Superfund Research Program (SRP) is an academically based, multidisciplinary, of toxic wastes. Many of the new sites then translational research program that for 25 years has sought scientific solutions to health and being recognized were the result of actions environmental problems associated with hazardous waste sites. SRP is coordinated by the by parties long gone. The purpose of the tax National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). It supports multi-project grants, undergraduate and postdoctoral training programs, individual research grants, and Small Business was to provide resources to remediate these Innovation Research (SBIR) and Technology Transfer Research (STTR) grants. orphaned sites. One of the first actions taken under RESULTS: SRP has had many successes: discovery of arsenic’s toxicity to the developing human central nervous system; documentation of benzene toxicity to hematologic progenitor cells in the Superfund Act was the expenditure of human bone marrow; development of novel analytic techniques such as the luciferase expression more than $100 million to clean up dioxin- assay and laser fragmentation fluorescence spectroscopy; demonstration that PCBs can cause contaminated waste oil that had been developmental neurotoxicity at low levels and alter the genomic characteristics of sentinel animals; dumped to control dust on dirt roads in the elucidation of the neurodevelopmental toxicity of organophosphate insecticides; documentation rural community of Times Beach, Missouri. of links between antimicrobial agents and alterations in hormone response; discovery of biological The U.S. EPA purchased the entire town for mechanisms through which environmental chemicals may contribute to obesity, atherosclerosis, $35 million and then bulldozed it down. diabetes, and cancer; tracking the health and environmental effects of the attacks on the World Huge incinerators were built to burn not Trade Center and Hurricane Katrina; and development of novel biological and engineering only all of the homes and belongings in the techniques to facilitate more efficient and lower-cost remediation of hazardous waste sites. community, but the topsoil from the dirt CONCLUSION: SRP must continue to address the legacy of hazardous waste in the United States, roads (Hernan 2010). respond to new issues caused by rapid advances in technology, and train the next generation of The Superfund tax on the oil and leaders in environmental health science while recognizing that most of the world’s worst toxic hot chemical industries expired in 1995. Today, spots are now located in low- and middle-income countries. cleanup of hazardous waste sites is funded CITATION: Landrigan PJ, Wright RO, Cordero JF, Eaton DL, Goldstein BD, Hennig B, Maier RM, through general tax revenues, but the other Ozonoff DM, Smith MT, Tukey RH. 2015. The NIEHS Superfund Research Program: 25 years important components of CERCLA have of translational research for public health. Environ Health Perspect 123:909–918; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1409247 survived. In 1986, major enhancements were put in place via the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986 Introduction sludge to bubble up into the basements of (U.S. EPA 1986), the version of the law Twenty-five years ago, the U.S. Congress the overlying homes. Waste chemicals also currently in force. The U.S. EPA was assigned first set aside funds to address fundamental contaminated nearby streams. By the time responsibility for identifying, listing, cleaning research needs for the nation’s hazardous it was recognized as a hazardous waste site, up, and remediating hazardous waste sites waste problem with the Comprehensive Love Canal contained an estimated 21,000 through its Office of Solid Waste and Environmental Response, Compensation, tons of discarded chemicals consisting of Emergency Response (OSWER). The list and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980 [U.S. “caustics, alkalines, fatty acids and chlorinated was known as The National Priorities List Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hydrocarbons” and was linked to a high rate (NPL) (U.S. EPA 2013b). A new agency, 2011]. At the time, the United States was of miscarriages, birth defects, and other health the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease galvanized by the discovery of a massive disorders in surrounding neighborhoods (New Registry (ATSDR), was created under the act chemical waste disposal site at the Love Canal York State Department of Health 1981). and assigned responsibility for conducting in Niagara Falls, New York (New York State Within a few years a second major waste site health assessments of populations living near Department of Health 1981), an event that was discovered near Louisville, Kentucky. hazardous waste sites, with special emphasis forcefully put the legacy of many years of Known as the “Valley of the Drums,” the site on children. ATSDR is co-located in Atlanta, improper waste disposal on the public agenda. contained thousands of 55-gal drums full of Georgia, with the Centers for Disease The Love Canal, an unused conduit between chemical wastes that had accumulated over Control and Prevention (CDC). Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, had been used many decades. by the Hooker Chemical Company (later At that time, it became clear to policy Address correspondence to P.J. Landrigan, a subsidiary of the Occidental Petroleum makers and the American public that Department of Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Company) since the 1940s as a dumping hazardous waste was an environmental Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, ground for toxic waste. Once filled with and public health emergency. In response, Box 1057, New York, NY 10029 USA. Telephone: chemical waste, the canal was covered with the U.S. Congress passed CERCLA on (212) 824-7018. E-mail: [email protected] a clay seal in 1953, and homes and a school 11 December 1980. This law became known The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests. were built atop it. The waste did not stay as the Superfund Act because it authorized Received: 22 September 2014; Accepted: 12 May underground. The canal filled with water, and the creation of a large fund supported by a 2015; Advance Publication: 15 May 2015; Final by 1976 heavy rains regularly caused toxic tax on the chemical manufacturing and Publication: 1 October 2015. Environmental Health Perspectives • VOLUME 123 | NUMBER 10 | October 2015 909 Landrigan et al. The Superfund Research Program (SRP). One unique aspect is the requirement for that can be applied in the United States. For SRP was launched in 1987. It was established an integrated suite of research projects that example, the UC San Diego SRP represents by the Congress to provide scientific support includes a minimum of two biomedical SRP on the Good Neighbor Environmental for the U.S. EPA and ATSDR hazardous projects and two environmental science or Board (GNEB), an independent federal waste programs and funded through a small engineering projects (Suk and Anderson advisory committee that provides guidance set-aside from the Superfund Trust. SRP’s 1999; Suk et al. 1999). There may be as to the President and the Congress on envi- mission is to “seek solutions to the complex many as 12 components organized around a ronmental challenges along the U.S.–Mexico health and environmental issues associated common theme and supported by core facili- border (U.S. EPA 2014). Another major with the nation’s hazardous waste sites with ties. The mandatory pairing of environmental SRP presence on the U.S.–Mexico border the ultimate goal of improving public health.” research with biomedical research is unique in is the Dean Carter Binational Center for It has worked to provide answers to impor- the NIH portfolio. Environmental Health Sciences, a partner- tant scientific questions: How clean must a Each SRP must include a) an ship between the University of Arizona, UC site be? And how might a site be remediated Administrative Core that promotes cross- San Diego, and Texas A&M SRPs and 11 to maximum effect and at minimum cost? disciplinary interactions, and is responsible Mexican universities and research institutes Chemical mixtures posed a particular chal- for oversight and liaison; b) a Research (University of Arizona 2014). Its goal is to lenge